“All or Nothing” leaves you wanting more

After watching the new All or Nothing series from the Arizona Cardinals, NFL Films, and Amazon.com, one word best describes the most appropriate reaction: More.

In more ways than one. I want more full-season NFL series like this, taking the viewer far beyond the same-old Hard Knocks storylines that primarily revolve around bubble players who may or may not be employed by the time a given episode debuts and delving into the week-in, week-out grind of a full season.

I want to know more about the Cardinals, a bedrock NFL franchise that has been around longer than the NFL itself and that has gone from being one of the league’s various Washington Generals to one of its Harlem Globetrotters, consistently winning more games than it loses and annually contending for playoff positioning. The Cardinals, after decades of blah, have muscled their way onto the short list of national NFL brands. All or Nothing cements the Cardinals as a team that will attract a lot attention far beyond its home market.

I want more Bruce Arians, who combines the profanity of Rex Ryan with the quick wit of Jerry Glanville to create a one-of-a-kind football coach who inexplicably didn’t get a chance to coach an NFL team of his own until he obtained an unexpected opportunity, due to Colts coach Chuck Pagano’s leukemia diagnosis, to prove that Arians deserved it.

Most importantly, I want more of what the cameras and microphones captured that didn’t make it to any of the eight one-hour episodes. Both cornerback Patrick Peterson and running back David Johnson have told PFT Live over the past week or so that the players knew that cameras were present but that they didn’t know when or how the footage would be used. Eventually, with cameras constantly around, the players and coaches become numb to their presence and revert to being who they really are. Not knowing why the cameras are there accelerates the process.

The oft-salty language (there’s a clean version that is suitable for younger viewers, since kids never otherwise hear or use those terms) suggests that the footage is raw and real. But there’s surely plenty of stuff that is even more raw and more real that ended up on the cutting room floor. I want to see that stuff, too.

As Cardinals president Michael Bidwill made clear during his visit to PFT Live, the footage was edited to exclude strategic information or other sensitive moments, like players being cut. Assurances like those were critical to get Arians to go along with the project.

“I don’t watch reality TV,” Arians said in 2014. “It does nothing for me so I don’t really want to be on reality TV. I would have to change totally how I coach. . . . I think it’s a total distraction to what you’re trying to accomplish because everything about Hard Knocks is getting on television and being an individual. And it’s a team game.”

With All or Nothing, the team takes center stage because the show was about much more than the month or so of training-camp practices and preseason games. The individuals nevertheless shine through, too, with the guy who said he doesn’t want to be on reality TV being the person who makes the strongest impact.

All or Nothing, which was released a day earlier that expected, is available at no charge on Amazon.com. It will be available for free until August 31.

43 responses to ““All or Nothing” leaves you wanting more”

jackedupboonie says:
Jul 1, 2016 11:23 AM
What?? Short list of National brands huh… Let me guess, you have them 3rd behind The Steelers and the Cowboys.
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You serious? Florio jumped on the Seahawks bandwagon in 2012 with the rest of the 12 “fans”. He’s a Vikings fan (when they win) and a Seahawks fan because it was the new, cool trend.

They do offer a free 30 day trial, but of course you’ll have to cancel or they’ll bill you. (which happens all the time to people because they either forget, or in some cases companies make it too difficult to cancel)

Also it might not be possible if you’ve had a free ‘trial’ before.

Otherwise if you don’t want to use the trial, you can watch the first episode for free.

No word on what it’ll cost normally per episode or for the full season.

Watched the first 2 episodes last night. It is better than Hard Knocks in every possible way. I just wish there were more episodes. Condensing a full season and playoffs into 8 episodes means they left out a ton of potentially great stuff. I heard they had over 1,000 hours of footage filmed.

The Cardinals hate once again is real. Folks cannot help but bring up a SEA loss, which came after AZ went into the “most toughest stadium to win a game” and won in great fashion. Oh they lost to CAR…ok I get it. So did the CAR loss count as 2 or 3 losses cause the last time I checked, winning by one or 40 is a win. Losing by 1 or 40 is a loss. Let us give props where props are due. AZ is a good football team and that is just what it is. All this is about is another way to document a football team, a good one. Go Red birds

A coach who never won anything, so hard headed and outspoken that head coaching offers avoided him like the plague until he was as old as dust, and who can’t stop flapping his gums: but the canonization continues.

The Cardinal game in Seattle was a great game…Arizona pulled it off at the end and celebrated like it was the NFC Championship. Seattle goes into Arizona, wipes them all over the field and Cards were like….well this is what we are used to. Then went on to take one more pounding in the playoffs…but…they eeked out an overtime win at home against Rodgers and a bag of balls first. Woopdy doo

Arizona really dominated the schedule last year with that 13-3 record. Seattle, well, they were just lucky to make the playoffs with that 10-6 squeaker. But hey, thanks to Blair Walsh’s missed chip shot, they barely made it into the second round! They must be so, so proud to have put up 10 points against the Vikings.

This year should be even more fun, considering that the Cardinals got better and the Seasquawks got worse. Welcome to cap hell, 2012s!

I got to check All orNothing out. Big Bruce Arians fan and respect the roster that Arizona front office has assembled.
Hawks were in fact lucky to go 10-6 last year. Could have been 8-8 very easily. Got some breaks for sure but Cary Williams and Kams pouting cost us lat year too.
I have high hopes this year for the Hawks but Arizona is the team to beat in the West and NFC IMO. Those two games will be a blast and glad Hawks get a head to head game with GBay and Carolina too.
Good luck Cardinal Nation. BTW David Johnson was a nice get after supposedly missing on Abdullah in draft last year. U guys r lucky to have him.

Aren’t all playoff games on national tv these days? I would think a 10 am road -4 degree game would have been the real factor as to why Seahawks scored 10 points at Gopher Stadium and squeezed out a road playoff game. The best though was being gifted a second 10 am road game on the east coast in the morning sun but curiously on a sloppy wet field.

Awesome. Now the 2012s can relive last season’s second place finish again, and again, and again, and again. Must be tough getting one-upped and outsmarted by Bruce Arians.

Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.
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Doubt it. You scratched out a win with 17 points from the refs and then got pole-axed 36-6 in a straight up game. Get used to missing the playoffs again, because that’s where you’re headed with your choke QB.

Weren’t the Seahacks curb stomped out of the playoffs by the Panthers?
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I seem to remember the Seahawks losing by 7 points in the last minute on a watered down high school field at 10AM. The Cardinals lost 49-15 a week later in prime time.

Awesome. Now the 2012s can relive last season’s second place finish again, and again, and again, and again. Must be tough getting one-upped and outsmarted by Bruce Arians.
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And just FYI, Pete Carroll is 4-2 against Arians, winning 34-22, 19-3, 35-6, and 36-6. You won 17-10 in a fluke game in 2013 (the year the Seahawks won the Super Bowl) and by 7 again last year in a game in which the Cardinals got 17 points from the refs.

Also, the Seahawks offense scored on every single drive over 2 games in 2016 in which they weren’t hit with a major penalty. Every. Single. Drive.

Saw it was out last night and decided to catch episode one before bed. Couldn’t stop watching so stayed up late for episode two and three. Cannot wait to finish over the weekend, probably tonight.

I have a whole new respect for the younger Bidwill owner and GM Steve Keim…they deserve the good press and accolades they’ve gotten over the last few years. And Bruce Arians…whoa boy! This show makes it clear why he never landed a coaching job AND why that was a big mistake by every nervous owner and GM who couldn’t see past his saltiness. Guy knows football and players and winning and doesn’t give a crap about anything else. Guy is one of a kind, born to coach.

And vets like Fitz and Palmer, younger leaders like Campbell and Honey Badger and Peterson, and up and comers like David Johnson make this Cardinals team easy to like.

As a Steelers fan, I see these fans from other teams squabbling about pecking orders and a particular game or season like it means so much. Then I remember that most fan bases don’t get to look back over decades and decades of big games and championships. My advice? The Cards, Panthers and Seahawks are all in terrific spots right now with real chances to win it all. Just enjoy it.

It speaks beyond any galactic doubt the “green with envy” and the “total feeling of disrespect” Seahawk fans have weighing all over on their fragile weenie egos after they have seen how well this Amazon product has turned out as well as the universal acclaim that is being lavished upon it.

So much hate from the Seagulls fans. Not sure why they are all over every post about the Cardinals.

Oh wait, it’s probably because they’re scared and jealous. How about instead of worrying about what the Cardinals are doing, you guys just focus on keeping your roster out of the county lockup first? Come back when you have no offseason wife beating charges.

So Seattle has won the division for half of its existence, been in 2nd place 3 times and 3rd 4 times – a total of half the years trailing any team – whereas the Cards have only won the division 3 times, been 2nd or 3rd 3 other times and lost it completely 5 times – which comes to 11 out of 14 years they’ve been trailing some other team.

So yes…the Cards are the better team at finishing in second place in some way, shape or form. Good job admitting it.